Review: ‘Castle Story’

Have you ever thought it would be awesome to control little, yellow, sentient balls of Play-Doh with little arms and legs (Bricktrons) to build a thriving kingdom brick by brick while defending against an army of little, angry, gray and purple balls of lumpy Pay-Doh (Corruptrons)? Well “Castle Story” by Sauropod Studio has you covered.

“Castle Story” is all about using your squishy little Bricktrons to build a castle while maintaining an efficient way to earn resources. This enables defenses to be upgraded and expanded to hold off the Corruptron horde.

There are a few different modes available to currently play in “Castle Story.”

The first mode is Sandbox where you can get used to the game’s mechanics with a tutorial without having to deal with enemies. This is very helpful for newcomers to the game or those of us who may have bought it when it was on early access and may have also have not played it for a while and may not remember how to play.

The second mode is my favorite, which is Survival. Survival pits your troop deployment, resource gathering and castle building skills against the ever increasingly numerous waves of Corruptrons.

With this new “Castle Story,” there are tons of new features. All the glitches and bugs from when I last played are completely gone. No more random stockpiles exploding or little Bricktron workers getting stuck on invisible bumps, and thank God for no more Bricktrons thinking it is fun to jump off the floating island.

There is also a new way to get warrior and archer Bricktrons. You must acquire a bunch of materials together from different resource points and then craft the separate sets of armor and weapons. It is a bit of a hassle, but I feel it is more rewarding when you get a soldier from that method rather than from spawning one like I remember in the past.

What has stayed the same since I last played is the building system. I have found it to be unique for this type of game. Like I mentioned in the introduction of this article, the building system is literally brick by brick.

After one of your squishy, yellow friends fills up a stockpile with stone from mining, the stockpile immediately converts that pile of stone into four large gray slabs of rock. You then must issue a build order to one of your non-working Bricktrons to start making a building or wall. He will go over to the pile of slabs, pick one up and bring it to the designated spot.

As one could guess, this is a timely process. This is especially true in the early stages of the game when you do not have much Bricktron power to carry out orders. Therefore, having a stockpile close enough to resources but equally close to a building site is very important. The entire survival mode is very tense, but the first few minutes are crucial because you must decide where all your stockpiles will be and where you plan to set your buildings.

Another mode of “Castle Story” is the Conquest mode. I will be honest, I have not really gone into it too much, but the goal of this mode is to build up a strong enough Bricktron army to defeat the Bricktron forces scattered around the map. In this mode, defenses are still important, but getting a large army to attack the Corruptrons is even more so.

The last mode is multiplayer which seems interesting.

I have not played any multiplayer for this game, but essentially you either work with a teammate to complete a goal or you go head-to-head and fight with your separate Bricktron forces.

So basically the Survival mode and Conquest mode, but with a cooperative partner or an opposing Bricktron commander.

The graphics look like everything is made of a clay/Play-Doh-like substance and makes “Castle Story” very inviting and warm.

As fun as everything is, the one part of the game that got me was the soundtrack. The music is happy and bouncy and brings a smile to my face.

“Castle Story” is another cute strategy game that I have gotten into and with good reason. It is fun and quite addictive once you get the hang of the controls and how to organize the Bricktrons effectively.

If you would like to find out more about this game and maybe get it, you can find information on the Steam Store by looking up “Castle Story” in the search bar.